The Astrup Fearnley Group represents over a century of history, growth and excellence in the areas of shipping and offshore services. This fascinating legacy is a success story created by generations of the Astrup Fearnley Family. We believe it is a story worth telling.
Fearnleys dates back to the year 1869 when its founder, Thomas Fearnley, established a shipbroking and agency business in Christiania, as the city of Oslo was known in those days.
In connection with its trading activities the company bought shares in vessels and chartered vessels. By 1881 the partnership of Fearnley & Eger established the Christiania Steamship Company.
In the beginning of the 1900s Fearnley & Eger became, more or less, a shipowning company and invested in ever larger units. The company engaged in both liner and tramp activities and survived the two world wars. In addition to these shipowning activities, the firm continued to engage in developing its skills in the area of shipping services and was engaged primarily in the area of dry cargo shipbroking.
As the tanker industry started to develop, Fearnleys became enthusiastically involved in this new field of endeavour. Later on, when the transportation of gas by sea became an important area of commerce, Fearnleys developed a broking department which specialized in this new commodity.
Hans Rasmus Astrup becomes the sole owner of Astrup Fearnley.
Always on the cutting edge of new trends, the company became involved in offshore and rig broking, coinciding with the onset of the development of the Norwegian continental shelf offshore oil fields.
With an ever increased demand for growth capital and financial brokerage services for maritime companies, 1980s marked the birth of Astrup Fearnley’s financial services offering with the establishment of Fearnley Project Finance in 1981 and Fearnley Securities in 1987.
Ownership of the Astrup Fearnley Group transferred to the Hans Rasmus Astrup Foundation.
Today, The Astrup Fearnley Group is a leading, independent and global provider of brokerage, research, financial- and advisory services to investors and maritime companies worldwide. The Group has a strong global presence with 350 professionals in 11 countries.
Our values are of such fundamental importance for our business that they deserve to be described in more detail.
At Astrup Fearnley we build and maintain trust by conducting every element of our business to the highest standards of integrity.
At Astrup Fearnley we provide timely and valuable services by anticipating the rapidly changing needs of our clients and their markets.
At Astrup Fearnley we value extraordinary individual performance, but our proudest moments arise from the teamwork of our professionals for the benefit of our clients.
At Fearnley Securities we have a stated commitment to ensure that everything we do – every piece of advice we give, every transaction we perform and every interaction in which we take part – shall be done with greatest integrity and in compliance with good business practice and high ethical standards.
